When the ancient Polynesians invented surfing, they often used a paddle to help them navigate. Fast-forward a few millennia, and Stand-Up Paddleboarding, or SUP, finds itself trendy again. Part of its increasing popularity is that standing upright allows surfers to spot waves more easily and thus catch more of them, multiplying the fun factor. Paddling back to the wave becomes less of a strain as well. The ability to cruise along on flat inland water, surveying the sights, is another advantage. Finally, its a good core workout. If youre sold on the idea, schedule an intro SUP lesson, free with board and paddle rental, and you may find yourself riding the waves like a Polynesian king.More

In the past 30 years, light artists have reimagined an art form that has always had the ability to turn the night sky, or a simple window, into luminescence. Last fall, the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts turned its southern glass wall into a parade of sound-sensing lights, Lightswarm, that changes with the movements of nearby people and things. Future Cities Lab, the San Francisco design company behind Lightswarm, has originated another notable light sculpture. Located by the YBCA's steps at 701 Mission, Murmur Wall will light up in arresting ways as it incorporates local trending search engine results and social media postings. Onlookers can offer their own contributions, which will feed into the Murmur Wall's data stream and light up the sculpture. What's trending in San Francisco? If you're walking by the YBCA, you can see firsthand — at least through light patterns that reflect the city's volatile internet habits.
Murmur Wall debuts Thursday at 6 p.m. and continues through May 31, 2017, at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, 701 Mission St., S.F. Free; 415-978-2700 or ybca.org. More

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An inconspicuous doorway off Valencia Street leads to a treasure trove of zines and 10,000-plus hours of sound and video recordings from the 1960s to the 1990s, all charting the progressive history of the Bay and its effect on global radical movements.

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Ethicstrouble, San Francisco Scientology Defector, Taunts Church

​After a month-long silence, the self-professed Scientology member who spoke with the SF Weekly about deciding the church was a cult has posted a new message online -- virtually taunting the church for its inability to figure out the identity of the apostate in its ranks.

"I have proven your inability to just find one mole. You trust me like you trust that most of the staff is not Ethics Trouble," wrote the apostate on a messageboard of the local Anonymous group, the masked protesters who stage regular protests against the San Francisco church. "This has played out better than I postulated. It's so perfect, I love it."

To get unacquainted readers up to speed, Ethicstrouble first posted on the same messageboard last month, thanking Anonymous for its frequent protests outside the "org," as Scientology's churches are known, on Columbus Avenue. (In the newest message Ethicstrouble says "You are impotent against a bunch of kids protesting.")

After some doubted his authenticity -- including the San Francisco org's president Jeff Quiros -- Ethicstrouble then released several graphs of the org's statistics to SF Weekly that the defector claimed were smuggled out of the org's trash. (Ethicstrouble claims that, after the leak, the org changed its policy to shred the statistics more quickly after review.) Several former Scientologists have suggested that Ethicstrouble's stats and follow-up interviews with the Weekly made the person appear to be a true Scientologist.

Our messages to Ethicstrouble in recent weeks had gone unanswered. But in the letter posted yesterday, the defector directly addresses fellow Scientologists, saying the decision to come out in the press as a defector was "because I saw no other way to get to you. To get you thinking, looking, questioning. Its time for us to see we made a mistake."

Ethicstrouble also says that the stats released to us are only half of the ones that were smuggled out of the org: "because of the nay Sayers on the boards I was tempted to challenge/bullbait Jeff Quiros with the threat I would give to [SF Weekly reporter] Lauren all the rest of the graphs (or maybe some more recent ones) with all names intact, you see, I had only given her about half of the them. I have chosen not to out of respect for my fellow brainwashed staff."

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Sub Pop recording artists 'clipping.' brought their brand of noise-driven experimental hip hop to the closing night of 2016's San Francisco Electronic Music Fest this past Sunday. The packed Brava Theater hosted an initially seated crowd that ended the night jumping and dancing against the front of the stage. The trio performed a set focused on their recently released Sci-Fi Horror concept album, 'Splendor & Misery', then delved into their dancier and more aggressive back catalogue, and recent single 'Wriggle'.
Opening performances included local experimental electronic duo 'Tujurikkuja' and computer music artist 'Madalyn Merkey.'"